Antifa Terrorists Receive 30 to 100 Year Sentences for Attack on Texas ICE Facility
“Their terrorist acts, attempted murder, vandalism, and explosives launched at a detention facility were a far cry from a peaceful protest or First Amendment expression.”
The Department of Justice announced that eight of the nine Antifa members convicted in March for their roles in the July 4, 2025, terrorist attack on the Prairieland Ice Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, learned their fates on Tuesday. The sentences ranged between 30 and 100 years.
According to a press release issued by the DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs, the leader of the cell, Benjamin Hanil Song, who was convicted of the attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, was sentenced to 100 years in prison.
Sentences for the co-conspirators, who were convicted on charges that included rioting, providing support to terrorists, conspiracy to use and carry explosives, and conspiracy to corruptly conceal documents, were as follows:
- Maricela Rueda — 70 years
- Cameron Arnold — 50 years
- Savanna Batten — 50 years
- Zachary Evetts — 50 years
- Bradford Morris — 50 years
- Elizabeth Soto — 50 years
- Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada — 30 years
The ninth defendant, Ines Soto, will be sentenced on July 1.
BREAKING: A jury finds eight defendants guilty of terrorism charges in an attack on a Texas ICE detention center. https://t.co/JaAaOBlcpd
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 13, 2026
The DOJ noted this is the first time Antifa members have been sentenced since President Donald J. Trump designated the group as a Domestic Terrorist Organization in September 2025.
After the sentences were handed down, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche issued the following statement:
The sentences handed down today make clear that Antifa terrorists who attack law enforcement and federal facilities will face swift and uncompromising justice. Their violent extremism has no place in our country, and the Department of Justice will continue to aggressively investigate, disrupt, and prosecute those who threaten law enforcement officers or undermine the rule of law.
FBI Director Kash Patel also responded to the sentencing with the following statement:
Today’s sentencings show the FBI remains committed to identifying, locating, and dismantling Antifa and its funding networks across the country. Acts of violence against our law enforcement partners will not be tolerated, and we continue our work to protect communities across the country from domestic terrorism.
The Left frames the attack as a protest that turned violent. How many protesters show up with eleven firearms, body armor, military-grade first aid kits with tourniquets, and fireworks?
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould called it a “vicious, armed attack that these Antifa cell members planned and executed against law enforcement and detention center officers on the night of July 4th last year.”
“Their terrorist acts, attempted murder, vandalism, and explosives launched at a detention facility were a far cry from a peaceful protest or First Amendment expression,” he added.
According to the DOJ, the terrorists arrived at the facility late at night dressed in “black bloc” attire — dark clothing, masks, and face coverings designed to conceal their identities. They launched fireworks and opened fire on the facility, while also vandalizing vehicles and a guard shack on the property. During the attack, Benjamin Song shot a law enforcement officer in the neck. The officer survived.
Over the course of a 12-day trial that ended in March, jurors “heard testimony from 46 witnesses and considered over 210 exhibits supporting the charges” against the defendants.
The DOJ reported that seven additional defendants pleaded guilty to one count of providing material support to terrorists and thereby avoided a trial. They will be sentenced on July 1.
According to the press release, “the defendants were members of a North Texas Antifa Cell, part of a larger militant enterprise made up of networks of individuals and small groups primarily ascribing to an ideology that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and the system of law.”
Leader of ANTIFA Cell Members in North Texas SENTENCED TO 100 YEARS IN PRISON for Terrorist Attack on ICE Facility: Seven additional defendants also sentenced before one-year anniversary of attack to a combined 450 years in prison
This is the first sentencing of defendants… pic.twitter.com/euFyrANpQW
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) June 23, 2026
For years, many politicians, activists, and media outlets dismissed Antifa as little more than a loose collection of anti-fascist demonstrators. Some, like former FBI Director Christopher Wray called it “an idea.”
The evidence presented at trial told a very different story. Jurors heard how members of a North Texas Antifa cell armed themselves, concealed their identities, coordinated their actions, and launched a violent assault on a federal detention facility that nearly claimed the life of a law enforcement officer. Whatever label one chooses to apply, this was not protest. It was organized political violence. And after Tuesday’s sentences, those responsible will spend decades behind bars paying the price for it.
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Hip hip hooray!!!
They deserve worse
A good start. More, please.
As said above… a good start…
Now nuke the Minnesota signal chat conspiracy…
Sure looks like things are happening
Benny Song: “Pretti Stupid and Good For Nothing made me do it!
Good! More! They are what a real insurrection looks like. Not like the poor befuddled Jan 6 defendants (most of them).
Get their financiers now and continue rounding them up!!!
Yes, this is what insurrection looks like. And there’s plenty of it in Portland, where a judge has just made a dangerous ruling that must be appealed immediately. Dangerous enough that the judge should be investigated, just in case he’s been indiscreet enough to have traceable contact with the insurrectionists. It’s not likely, but it’s worth looking for just in case.
PS: I have since looked up the grounds for that decision and it’s not nearly as crazy as it has been portrayed on right-wing sites. All the right-wing reporting I’ve seen has deliberately omitted or obscured the basis for the decision, which is not unreasonable — the fence prevents access to the plaza, which the government admitted is a traditional public forum. The judge said the government could put up a smaller fence that didn’t include the plaza, but the government said that would take months to do, and the judge said the first amendment can’t wait months. I think the judge is probably wrong, and will probably be overturned on appeal, but at least he did have a reasonable basis. I no longer think it likely that he actively supports antifa, though it’s still possible.
“….it’s not nearly as crazy as it has been portrayed on right-wing sites…”
One of the things that I worry about is falling into a silo of right-wing viewpoints. My doctor whom I’ve known for years is a Leftie. He thinks he’s a moderate on the Left, but then I think I’m moderate on the right. It’s shocking how differently we see the same news.
Which view is closer to the truth? Of course the Right-leaning outlets, correct? But …. I have to constantly remind myself to keep asking. Sometimes it’s fun just to read the headlines from both sides.
Why is this in the news?
Why now?
If you play all the cards out, who really benefits?
Sure. The Judge is totes correct Abbott Constitutional rights not being required to ‘pause’ for govt. Though this same analysis seems noticeably missing when we move from 1A to 2A.
That quibble done, the Judgement isn’t crazy. It’s probably correct. However the missing context is the lack of consistent local LEO cooperation to secure the rights of the folks in that building, in the neighborhood and passers by/visitors or folks with business in the area being subjected to a mob.
Remove the fence in that context and remove public order and safety. Add the lack of ability or willingness of local leadership to assist in maintaining order and relatively low numbers of Federal LEO in the area ….seems like the Judge created the justification to declare an insurrection and bring in the 82nd Airborne. Obviously within the context of local/State leaders as publicly declared members of the ‘resistance’ aka insurrection and without a functioning legitimate State/Local government then a Federal appointment for Potentate of some sort a Viceroy/Governor General would be needed. Obviously the lack of public safety means normal civilian judicial proceedings can’t be maintained so Martial Law mist be declared. Lets send Stephen Miller to take charge of the State backed by the 82nd Airborne and the NG units …but only until the ‘insurrection’ is crushed and the ‘resistance’ leaders rounded up, trials held, convictions delivered and they are sent to Gitmo. At that point we can have new elections for State/Local offices under the Federal occupation. Probably only take half a decade.
I think he’s actually not correct, but he’s not out of bounds.
That the plaza is a traditional public forum doesn’t compel the government to keep it open forever. It’s federal property, and the government could decide to demolish it altogether. A fortiori it can decide to limit access to it for a few months; this places a certain burden on the freedom of speech, because it prevents spontaneous protests from arising there without the notice necessary to obtain a permit, but given the incontrovertible evidence of what happens at such protests the burden seems not unreasonable.
The constitution doesn’t bar all limits on speech in a traditional public forum; it merely requires that such limits be not only value-neutral but also content-neutral. This burden, that for a few months protests in the plaza will require advance notice and a permit, is content-neutral; it applies to all large gatherings without regard to what they’re about, let alone what point of view they take. So it should be allowed.
But the case against it is not crazy, as it has been portrayed on right-wing web sites. The judge makes a good point, even if he hasn’t convinced me.
These prosecutions and prison sentences definitely send a message to the nazi/communist/Islamofascist/Muslim supremacist Dhimim-crats’ sundry terrorist-thug cadres.
Note that under a crone-harlot-dunce Kamuluh administration, these pukes not only never would have been prosecuted, they would have received commendations and praise from Kamuluh and the rest of the Dhimmi-crat criminal organization’s apparatchik-elders.
Credit is due to the sentencing judge, whoever he/she is, for recognizing these “Anti-fa” thugs as the domestic terrorists and subversives that they are, and sentencing them accordingly.
According to Google Gemini, two federal judges were responsible for the sentences, here:
“The massive prison sentences handed down to the eight members of the North Texas Antifa cell were divided between two judges in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas:
U.S. District Judge Mark T. Pittman sentenced cell leader Benjamin Hanil Song to 100 years and issued sentences to Maricela Rueda (70 years) and Bradford Morris (50 years). Judge Pittman also oversaw the original 12-day trial earlier in the year.
Chief U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor sentenced the remaining five defendants—Cameron Arnold, Zachary Evetts, Savanna Batten, Elizabeth Soto, and Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada—to terms ranging from 30 to 50 years.
Judges Mark T. Pittman and Reed O’Connor were appointed by different presidents. Judge Pittman was appointed by President Donald Trump, and Judge O’Connor was appointed by President George W. Bush.”
So, there you go. No way in hell a federal judge appointed by a Dhimmi-crat president would have handed down such richly-deserved and stiff sentences, here.
I think they may actually get more violent before they learn any lesson
I would have preferred executions. Much more cost effective to the taxpayers, saves prison cells for more Democrat criminals, and sends a “pour encourager les autres” type of message.
Perhaps the costs could be kept down by treating them the way the DC police/prison system abysmally treated the J6 defendants….
Good first steps. Rinse and repeat.
Also note that there is no parole eligibility, for inmates sentenced in the federal prison system.
So, unlike the case of the state-level, Texas sentencing of that black sociopath thug who was recently convicted of a callous knife-stabbing murder at a high school track meet and sentenced to a 35-year prison term, with parole eligibility after serving half of the sentence (17.5 years), these “Anti-fa” terrorist thugs will actually be serving their time.
Anthony will almost certainly serve a lot more than 17.5 years. It’s almost impossible that he’ll get parole the first time he becomes eligible for it, and very unlikely that he’ll get it the second or third time either.
Even if Texas were somehow to elect a Democrat governor, that wouldn’t help him directly. The governor would have to appoint a new majority on the parole board, each of whom would have to be confirmed by the senate, which is even more unlikely to fall to the Democrats than the governorship is.
Parole may be unlikely to be granted, but, the notion that the victim’s family must now engage in an annual or other time interval ritual of perennially appearing before a Parole Board, in order to advocate for continued incarceration of a murderer who was already sentenced to a defined prison term, as well as re-living the trauma of the murder, instead of being able to move on with their lives while the killer rots in jail for what should have been a life sentence without the possibility of parole, is utterly offensive and farcical.
This is the basis of my objection to parole, conceptually and legally — it forces crime victims, and/or, the victim’s/victims’ families, to perennially re-live traumas and to re-litigate issues of the convict’s deserved punishment and societal danger, that were already settled at sentencing.
The entire concept of parole as currently used is flawed. Either the initial sentence was just or it was not. If not, appeal is the appropriate recourse.
Only exceptional circumstances should justify early release.
And since the original meaning was a promise made upon one’s honor, it seems to me that a person who has committed a deadly crime would be the least likely candidate to be “honor-bound”.
I totally agree.
Yeah, well, being eligible for it and getting it are two vastly different things. In Texas, its pretty much unheard of for someone that has been convicted of a crime like what that kid did to get paroled the first time, or even the second time out. I’m not sure how long it takes for each parole hearing to take place, but I do expect that that kid will be there for a lot longer then 1/2 of that 35 year sentence. Thinking Texas will keep him as long as they possibly can right where he is.
I don’t disagree; I’m positing that, irrespective of whether the perp in this case receives a parole release, after he becomes eligible for it, parole as a moral, legal and practical concept, is hugely flawed, unjust and offensive, to the victim(s) and/or the victim’s/victims’ families.
Bye bye! Enjoy BOP cuisine and sex whether you want it or not…..
Rape jokes are not funny. Nothing justifies it.
I agree
This is completely meaningless. His purported “designation” was nothing but a press release, with no legal consequences whatsoever. It played no role in the charges against these people, or their sentences. There simply is no such thing in US law as a “Domestic Terrorist Organization”.
These people were all convicted for their own acts of terrorism, not for their membership in or support for or association with any organization. Because there is no law against such membership, support, or association, and there can’t be.
The weapons are not proof of anything; we’ve all seen pictures of protesters on our side who show up armed. In this case there seem to have been more than eleven participants, so eleven weapons between them is fewer than one each. It’s possible that their original intent was peaceful, and they were merely preparing for the possibility that they might need to defend themselves. But given their subsequent actions that’s not likely. And in any case it doesn’t matter. The fact is that they committed a terrorist attack. When they decided to do it isn’t all that relevant.
Note that the charge against them is under 18 USC 2339A, which bans providing material support or resources “knowing or intending that they are to be used in preparation for, or in carrying out, a violation of” a list of specific laws. So it’s the terrorist acts that make aiding them a crime, not the organization, if any, to which the support was given. This is very different from 18 USC 2339B, which bans giving material support to a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, regardless of what the support was to be used for. That is not applicable here, because “antifa” is not a DFTO.
And that appears to be completely true. Nothing in this case contradicts it. Antifa is a movement, an idea, just like white supremacy, Marxism, Gaianism, TDS, “incel” ideology, “trans” ideology (as well as “transphobia”, “homophobia”, etc.), and other such poisonous ideas that motivate people to commit serious crimes, none of which are organizations. Neither Charlie Kirk’s murderer nor the three who attempted to murder Trump were part of any organization; they were all inspired by ideas, not sent by an organization. I don’t know where people get the idea that ideas can’t be dangerous; but weapons that are targeted at organizations and are useful in fighting them don’t work against ideas.
Curious what the story is with the 9th perp?
Is that the one that rolled and got a deal?
Comments on social media are virtually all Antifa supporters pushing the “Its just an idea” nonsense, as if it doesn’t exist as an organization.
Dumbest line I’ve ever seen on any subject.
Do they actually imagine that they’ll convince >0 people of this?
It doesn’t exist as an organization. That’s a simple fact. People are acting as if this conviction proves otherwise, but that’s just not true.
White supremacy is not an organization either. Nor is neo-Nazism (as opposed to the actual NSDAP, which was an actual political party). Nor are TDS, wokeness, antisemitism, and many other ideological movements. There are many organizations that subscribe to these ideas, but the ideas don’t belong to them.
It does exist as a movement. That is clearly accurate when arrests are made and information is revealed showing travel from many parts of the US. There is an organization that communicates on protests, plans of attack and coordination with fireworks, radios, uniforms and hierarchy. What needs to happen is establishing a link between these terrorists and those funding the violence. Those groups, individuals should be in prison.
No one ever denied that it’s a movement. A movement is not an organization. A movement is an idea.
And no, there’s no evidence of an organization that communicates on these things. That’s not how things work nowadays. People join chat groups and communicate with each other directly. No organization is required beyond the ad hoc practicalities of each separate event. People decide to attend an event, and come together to provide whatever’s needed; once the event’s over that ad hoc and local organization no longer exists. The next event is completely separate. There’s not an organization that can be banned, even if there were some law that could ban actual organizations, which there isn’t.
That’s like saying Al Qaeda never existed as an organization.
Both Al Qaeda and Antifa operate with a loose structure based on scattered “cells”.
But, there’s definite structure. They have a training manual. This particular case in TX, if you look into what the Feds were able to prove in court, this cell was very organized and trained regularly.
And all of the scattered cells communicate over various networks. Signal being the predominant one. And, again, with this particular case in TX – they were able to show the jury the texts in Signal that were actually used to coordinate.
Just because they don’t have “membership cards” or a top down command structure doesn’t mean there is no organization.
I watched Antifa in person during the George Floyd riots. They showed up in my town on chartered busses – actually blocking my driveway. I couldn’t leave, so I walked over and watched the riots.
It was like a military operation. Starting with the fact that they were all wearing all black, had body armor on, and were all carrying weapons. They’d had pallets of half-bricks delivered the night before. Dropped off at the very intersections where they knew, in advance, the police line would form.
Command structure was apparent during the riot, also – could see the guys that were wearing headsets to communicate and who were barking orders to the guys under their command.
And their riot gear looked brand new, and expensive. Coming in on chartered busses costs money too.
They seriously need to go after the financing of Antifa if they want to break them. There’s big bucks behind them coming from a variety of places.
For a group pretending that they don’t exist, and are merely “an idea”, they’re better funded and organized than just about anything in this country outside of our armed forces.
It’s all a sport until someone gets serious jail time
There are some interesting parallels with the anarchist (note the lower case “a”) movement of the late 19th century / early 20th century. Their belief was that if they just murdered all the government presidents or kings, et al. world peace and socialism would spontaneously spring forth for a new age of man. They managed at least 10 assassinations before their movement fizzled out in the excitement of WWI.
Their only chance would have been to argue governmental inducement to engage in these activities. The prior administration encouraged this behavior and never seriously prosecuted it.
It’s about time some of these terrorist were charged for attacking ice agents and blocking them from doing their job
Sentences probably shouldn’t be longer than the longest treasury bond, a comment on length of legal obligation. So 30 years.
What kind of crack do you smoke to come up with these diatribes?
The same kind Tucker uses.
I can see the cognitive dissonance of a longer sentence for attempted murder than actual successful first degree murder. Federal versus State sentencing does apply.
Antifa is the chosen name for the organization that identifies itself as such and that exists as said organization. Why is that so difficult to grasp by some here?
Because it’s not true. There’s not a shred of evidence for it. Trump made it up and you’re parroting his fiction. The guy who literally wrote the book on Antifa describes how it works, and it’s not an organization.
Exactly there are clusters of people who are driven by a loosely shared ideology but there is no vertical organizational structure, There is no Grand Wizard. There is no newsletter or annual picnic. They are simply independent little mounds of fire ants.
Milhouse – As I say above I understand the nicety of the distinction you are making however, I do believe that the problem caused by this movement is worthy of federal attention. I would argue that many terrorist groups are similarly poorly organized and composed of ad hoc volunteers to [whatever] cause. They don’t give a damn about legal niceties and those hunting them down shouldn’t be overly burdened by them either.
But I suspect someone outside is financing them somwhow, even if they are not “organized”.